Brussels Airport campaign highlights easier access for visitors from 25 EU countries, with tourism offering a practical avenue for closer engagement.

China’s Mission to the European Union has launched a campaign at Brussels Airport encouraging Europeans to visit China without a visa, bringing its diplomatic outreach to an audience already preparing to cross borders.

The four-week promotion opened on 27 October, led by Ambassador Cai Run. According to Travel Tomorrow, those attending included European Travel Commission chief executive Eduardo Santander, MEP Ondřej Dostál, Europe-Asia Center chairman Piet Steel and Li Yan, chargé d’affaires ad interim of the Chinese Embassy in Belgium. Images of China are being displayed in the airport’s departure areas.

For European travellers, the campaign draws attention to a substantial reduction in the paperwork required for a short visit. Ordinary passport holders from 25 EU member states can enter mainland China for up to 30 days for tourism, business, visits to family and friends, exchanges or transit.

Czechia and Lithuania remain outside this particular arrangement. The exemption depends on nationality, passport type and the purpose and duration of the journey, rather than simply residence in the EU.

The Brussels event promoted an existing Chinese policy. It did not introduce a reciprocal agreement granting visa-free travel in both directions: Chinese ordinary passport holders generally continue to require visas for short visits to the Schengen area. Italian foreign ministry guidance.

Nevertheless, the opening offers a practical opportunity for closer contact. Removing an application stage can make a difference to a company arranging meetings, a family planning a reunion or holidaymakers considering their first journey to China.

China began its expanded unilateral waiver initiative in December 2023 with a trial covering France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Malaysia. Those arrangements initially permitted visits of up to 15 days. The programme subsequently widened, with Sweden joining in November 2025 and Beijing extending the arrangements for dozens of countries through the end of 2026.

The airport campaign also coincides with stronger direct connections. Air China introduced Brussels services to Beijing and Chengdu in March 2026, adding Chengdu to the airport’s passenger network. Brussels Airport subsequently identified the airline’s arrival and the Chengdu connection among the developments strengthening its links with Asia.

Together, easier entry and additional flights give the invitation commercial substance. They reduce two obstacles between interest in a destination and an actual booking.

Cai emphasised the opportunity for Europeans to discover China and build mutual understanding. Santander welcomed the waiver and expressed hope for easier travel for Chinese visitors to Europe. He also proposed another EU–China Tourism Year in 2028, a decade after the 2018 initiative. That suggestion has not been presented as an agreed programme.

For Brussels, the value of such exchanges extends beyond tourism revenues. Personal visits can sustain connections within a relationship facing difficult political and economic questions.

At the July 2025 EU–China summit, European leaders pressed Beijing on trade imbalances, market access and Russia’s war against Ukraine, while affirming their commitment to constructive engagement.

More travel will not resolve those differences, but it can broaden the experience on which public perceptions are based. Meetings between businesses, families and visitors give the relationship a human dimension beyond negotiations between institutions.

Travellers must still observe the waiver’s limits. Employment, formal study and news reporting require appropriate authorisation, and Chinese authorities recommend carrying documents supporting the purpose of a visit. The published expiry date for the arrangements covering eligible EU nationalities remains 31 December 2026.

At Brussels Airport, China’s invitation is now reaching passengers at the point where international journeys begin. Whether it translates into more visits will be the campaign’s immediate test; the lasting benefit could lie in the relationships those journeys create.